How to make a note in Word

How to make a note in Word: While collaborating with a Word document, users can add notes in Word to express their opinion, remark, suggestion or feedback – a comment on text content. With this method of group commenting, you get feedback from other users or express wishes to your colleagues yourself.

If you want to draw attention to a particular part of the document, you can highlight certain parts of the text. You can also add a comment to any text if you have something to say about it.

Comments in Word are a convenient way to mark up your documents without having to edit the contents of the Word document directly. This is a kind of adding a reminder for yourself or your colleagues in the form of notes, without making changes to the document itself.

In this case, the text of the document itself is not edited, because in Word notes are added to the margins of the document without correcting the main text. After adding a note, you will see a tooltip with a comment in the Word on the right.

You can add your comments to anything in Word, including text, images, charts, tables, and so on.

This guide will show you how to add comments in Word. The instructions in this article apply to different versions of the program: Word 2021, Word 2019, Word 2016, Word 2013, Word 2010, Word 2007.

How to make a note in Word – 1 way

You can add a note in Word in several ways. First, we will look at the option using the Review tab.

Do the following:

1. In the window of an open Word document, go to the “Review” tab.
2. Place the mouse cursor at the desired location in the document to attach a note.

To add a note to a single word, place the mouse cursor before, on, or after the word. If you need to insert a comment to a document fragment, then you need to first select this fragment in the document text.

3. On the ribbon, in the Notes group, click the Create Note button.
4. The word or piece of text to which a note is added will automatically be highlighted in red.

In Word 2010 and Word 2007, the fill will only disappear completely when you delete the comment.

In versions of Word 2013, Word 2016, Word 2019, Word 2021, the fill is not normally displayed, it appears when you hover over or click on the note leader area.

5. An additional notes area will open on the right side of the document page, on which the text of the comment is entered directly in the red callout rectangle. Your name in the program appears next to the note from.

When multiple people add comments to a Microsoft Word document, the username icons are displayed in different colors so you can see who wrote which comment. Each note also has a timestamp indicating when it was inserted.

6. As you enter text in the red note field, its borders will automatically expand.
7. To return to working with the main text of the document, click the mouse cursor at the desired location in the document.

All notes will remain in the MS Word document after it is saved on the computer.

How to insert a note in Word – 2 way

Check out another method on how to make a note in Word on the right using the “Insert” tab.

Go through the steps:

1. Open a Word document on your computer.
2. Click on the text (a piece of text must first be selected) or on the object that you want to comment on.
3. Go to the “Insert” tab.
4. In the Comment group, click the Comment icon to insert your comment on that part of the document.
5. Write your comment.

How to create a note in Word – 3 way

Now we will look at another method for adding a comment: you will learn how to insert a marginal note in Word from the context menu of the program. This is the fastest way to add comments in Word because you don’t have to navigate between document content and the Review or Insert tabs.

Do the following:

1. Select (highlight) and then right click on what you want to comment.
2. Click on the “Create note” context menu item, or click on the “Create note” icon in the horizontal panel that appears.
3. Write your note.

Adding an Insert Note Button to the Quick Access Toolbar

If you often need to add comments in Microsoft Word, then you can add the “Insert Comment” button to the Quick Access Toolbar.

Do the following:

1. Open the “Insert” tab.
2. In the Note group, right-click and select Add to Quick Access Toolbar from the context menu.
3. Position the mouse cursor at a specific location in the Word document, and then click the “Insert Comment” button.

How to change a note in Word

You can change your comment if there is a need to supplement the text of the note or correct it.

You need to do the following:

1. In the open document window, click in the annotation area in the red callout rectangle at the desired location in the annotation text.
2. Make any changes and additions to the text that is formatted in the usual way.
3. Click outside the note field to return to working with the body text of the document.

Note that anyone with access to this Word file can edit your comment unless the document is edit-protected.

How to reply to a comment in Word

In addition to creating new comments, you can carry on a conversation by replying to comments left by other users. Use the following methods to reply to a comment.

1 way:

1. In the red rectangle of the note callout, click the “Reply” button.
2. Write your answer.

2 way:

1. Click on the note with the right mouse button.
2. In the context menu that opens, click on the “Reply to comment” item.
3. Add your comment.

How to view notes in Word

If you need to view and edit notes located in different places in the document, you can use the suggested algorithm of actions to navigate through the comments.

Do the following:

1. In the open document window, go to the “Review” tab.
2. In the “Note” group, click on the “Previous” or “Next” button and move through the document from note to note.

How to show hidden comments in a document

Notes added to a Word document may be hidden so the user may not see them.

To show hidden notes in Word, do the following:

1. In the document window, go to the “Review” tab.
2. Click the “Show Fixes” button.
3. In the list of commands, turn on the “Notes” item.
4. The annotation area will open along with all existing annotations.

How to change note font in Word

By default, notes use standard, small text, so it’s often necessary to increase the font size in a Word note. Text formatting changes in the usual way: you can make it bold, italic, underline, change the font color, and so on.

Font selection and font size in notes is configured differently.

Go through a few steps:

1. Highlight the note text.
2. On the Home tab, click the arrow in the lower right corner of the Styles group.
3. In the menu that opens, click on the “Manage Styles” button.
4. In the “Manage Styles” window, in the “Change” tab in the “Select a style to change” section, find and select “Leader text (Hide until used)”, and then click on the “Edit …” button.
5. In the Edit Style window, under Formatting, select an appropriate font and font size.

You can check the “Add to style collection” box to use this style in the future. By default, the “Only in this document” setting is enabled. You can select the “In new documents that use this template” option.

6. Click on the “OK” buttons in this and previous windows.
7. As a result, the font and font size of the note will change.

How to print Word with notes

In some cases, you may want to print notes in Word along with the main document content.

Printing notes in Word takes place in the following sequence:

1. Go to the “Review” tab.
2. In the Record Changes group, click Show Fixes.
3. In the drop-down menu, make sure the Notes box is checked.

If you click on the “Specific users” item, you can select all reviewers or specific users.

4. Enter the “File” menu, click “Print”.
5. In the Options section, click the Print All Pages button. All at once.”
6. In the open menu, make sure that there is a daw in the “Print corrections” item.
7. Click on the “Print” button.

Article Conclusions

Some users need to know how to annotate in Word when they are collaborating on the same document. Adding comments helps you get opinions and comments from colleagues without editing the main content of the document. With notes, you can see what you need to work on or what you need to change in the future.